Tesla In Top 10 Car Brands (With Just 1 Car), According To Consumer Reports

Even though the Tesla Motors brand is only a few years old now, that doesn’t mean that the name doesn’t carry some prestige to it. After only four years on the market, the Model S has managed to work its way rather firmly into the public consciousness, an impressive feat when you think about it.

The popular EV manufacturer is now ranked in the top 10 of Consumer Reports‘ annual Car Brand Perception Survey. That certainly says something about the effectiveness of the company’s marketing strategies, and about the quality of its products in general.

Image Credit: Tesla Motors

Tesla is currently ranked in fifth place — only behind juggernauts such as Honda, Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet. The new ranking represents a huge increase over the previous year — jumping from a 47-point rating last year to 88 points this year. The jump is partially down to the excellent reviews that the Model S has received, the numerous awards, high stock prices, and industry-leading crash test ratings, but there’s more to it than that.

Consumer Reports says Tesla’s jump is representative of a brand able to do multiple things well, rather than just majoring in one or two perception categories. Vehicles are scored in several areas, based on how important they are to consumers when buying a new car. These include quality, safety, performance, value, fuel economy, design/style and technology/innovation.

Tesla ranked highly in all areas, but made particular strides this year in fuel economy, design/style and even topped the table in technology/innovation–perhaps not surprisingly. Toyota still maintains its lead in fuel economy thanks to the unshakeable Prius, while Chevrolet–aided by the Corvette Stingray and Camaro, but also by the Volt–tops the performance charts.

It’s worth noting that Consumer Reports’ perception survey is solely based on perception and not on the products themselves. Positive and negative publicity holds sway here, rather than the competence of the vehicles, their actual reliability or customer satisfaction.

Too bad about that, as Tesla very clearly led the pack in customer satisfaction during 2013 — nudging Chevrolet’s Volt out from the number one spot that it had held for the two previous years.

It’ll be interesting to see where Tesla ranks overall next year, further improvements seem pretty likely.

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About the Author

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.